Thoughts on Target Heart Rate?

[M-Rad]

Ha!Ha! jiffer, I am in SoCal too! Once we are both past this, we should go do a century ride to celebrate.

One thing i forgot to mention is that as I am doing these slow efforts my cadence needs to be above 95. At first I thought this is stupid, I'll never get any better doing this but I noticed that within a week my conditioning had improved. If my avg hr was 125 riding trainer at 13mph at 95 cadence, then the following week my hr was lower and the same speed felt easier than the week before, so there is a method to his madness. As my nutrionist said, I need to ride zone .5 (even less than a zone 1). 135 hr is the max I can go to, so when I do my trainer rides, I try to stay way under this to prevent stress to my body as I rebuild my base.

On my long rides, I choose flat routes as much as possible. I do come across some hills that are between 2-4% grade. I just make sure to go very slowly and spin. This is tough for me b/c I am a climber but I am sticking to what my nutritionist says. I've tried to ride hard a couple of times and i really screwed myself the next couple of days in terms of stress and insomnia. Since I've been dealing with this since last September, I don't want to go backwards anymore. From now on, it's long and slow for me (at 95 cadence and above).

What supplements are you on? My problem was cortisol. I could not fall asleep or stay asleep. Then one stupid doctor put me on mega doses of progesterone and melatonin to help me sleep. Wrong! Both these convert to cortisol. So at 10pm, I'm wide awake ready to run a marathon. I had to take sleep aids to get to sleep but would still wake up at 2 and 4 am unable to get back to sleep. My nutritionist took me off of those hormones. Now at bedtime I take some cal/mag/zinc along with 5 htp. That helps.

Your blood sugar spikes a lot. How many times a day do you eat. My food plan requires me to eat 7 x a day. I eat every two hours. Aside from my main meals, my snacks consist of a fat and sugar (fruit with tablespoon of almond butter). Before I go to bed, I eat a combo of shredded wheat, applesauce and almond butter to prevent my blood sugar from rising during the night and preventing my cortisol from going up to compensate. I had a friend go through adrenal fatigue where he was tired all the time due to low cortisol and he used a lot of salt on his food plus ate lots of protein.

Also when I do my long rides, I make sure to try to get in 400 calories for each hour of riding to prevent cortisol from rushing in to the job b/c I am running out of energy. So I have been relying on those Justin almond butter packets (the flavored ones like honey almond or chocolate b/c it is all about pairing fat and sugar when you work out.)

The next thing they are going to put me on is testosterone. My hormone range is normal but testosterone was slighly below normal. He feels it is too low for an athlete. The theory now is that I don't have enough T, so adrenaline and cortisol jump up to compensate. Will let you know how it goes. What are your hormone levels like? I am 45 yo. Since this started, I haven't had a period. I hope I didn't put myself into menopause.

Well I'm off to eat some breakfast and then spin for an hour. Woo-hoo!

Let me know if any of this makes sense.

[Artista]

I've tried to ride hard a couple of times and i really screwed myself the next couple of days in terms of stress and insomnia.

This is very timely. I did a significantly more strenuous ride yesterday than I'm accustomed to. I was very tired by bedtime and should have slept like a baby. Instead, I woke up as soon as my head hit the pillow. I ended up taking a Benadryl to get to sleep but still didn't feel refreshed this morning.

I have sleeping problems off and on. On the troublesome nights, even if I can get to sleep naturally, I wake up every two hours on the dot. I've always attributed the sleeping problems to consuming too many carbs during the day. I never associated MORE exercise with insomnia. I'm going to start monitoring that association a whole lot more closely now.

[Catrin]

Yes, there is an exercise induced insomnia, and I am prone to it. I also can't drink coffee after 12, and really shouldn't have 9:00 am...

[Artista]

I've heard of exercise induced insomnia but always thought that it was caused by working out too late in the day. I finished my ride by 1:00. I never would have considered that the additional exercise that early in the day could affect my sleep.

I swear that I learn something new every day on TE

[Catrin]

I've heard of exercise induced insomnia but always thought that it was caused by working out too late in the day. I finished my ride by 1:00. I never would have considered that the additional exercise that early in the day could affect my sleep.

I swear that I learn something new every day on TE

Personally, I've found that if my exercise is above a certain intensity level or longer than a certain number of hours I always have at least a touch of insomnia - regardless of how tired/sleepy I might be before bed. I've not heard it described that way, but that is how it appears to affect me. I've always heard it the way you describe.This is one reason I don't like to have my long ride on Sunday as it increases the chance I will go to the office tired the next day. I also can't have even one beer too close to bedtime - or I've the same problem. It may be that I am just prone to that type of insomnia which makes it more likely for non-traditional triggers.

[M-Rad]

Arista,

I used to get exercise induced insomnia when I would do intervals at night. Back then the only problem I had was in falling asleep (would stay up an extra 2 hours past bedtime but that was it).
What I am going through now and you may be experiencing a touch of is adrenal stress. Your body starts spitting out cortisol at all the wrong times. Cortisol is a stress hormone. The drop in cortisol at night is what causes the crash when you fall asleep and low levels of cortisol help you stay asleep during the night.
I had a hard time believing that my ride early in the day triggered my insomnia. But it was true. If I worked out during the morning. I'd feel fine all day but by night time my cortisol would pitch up. I couldn't fall asleep and would wake up every two hours (2AM and 4AM religously). When I was in my worst state, I would wake up in middle of night with my heart racing, rapid breathing and sweating (almost like hot flashes). I woke up as if startled by something and then couldn't get back to sleep. This would go on a few days after the ride. I tested this by staying off the bike, and then my body would normalize a bit but as soon as I went out there and pushed it again, my overworked adrenals would respond with excess cortisol and I'd be right back in that vicious insomnia cycle.
Be careful. Once your cortisol/adrneals go, it is prone to mess up your other hormones as well. Make sure you are properly hydrated and are getting sufficient calories (especially when you are riding). Take your recovery seriously. If you feel tired, don't push it. It will cause your adrenals to work very hard to overcome the fatigue it feels in the face of additional stress from training.
I've gotten used to taking my resting morning HR. If it is 5 points above normal, I either stay off the bike or scale my ride way back. The times I didn't adhere to this rule, I noticed I suffered insomnia that night.
Hope that makes sense.

[Catrin]

Some of this is sounding familiar M-Rad...Once I DO get to sleep on those harder exercise days, if I do, then it is up every 2-3 hours. I now refer to it as my "sleep breaks" I have to get up at 4:30 regardless. This doesn't help.

[M-Rad]

Catrin,

Just noticed you are on a SI lady gel flow. How do you like it? I went saddle shopping all weekend - came up empty.

Worst part is I got confusing advice from two different bike shops. Some say your sit bones should be on the widest part of the saddle. Another shop (more racer orientated said you should be sitting in the nose of the saddle right before it widens. Selle SMP and fizik models seem to lean towards this b/c their saddles actually have a bit of a craddle that prevents you from sliding back to the furtherest part of the saddle. Guy from bike shop #1 said, yeah that's great if you are riding TT or triathoons but on long rides it would kill you.

I'm now waiting for LBS#3 to get a SI SLR lady in so I can test it.

Do you like your saddle? How long are your longest rides?

[Catrin]

Catrin,

Just noticed you are on a SI lady gel flow. How do you like it? I went saddle shopping all weekend - came up empty.

Worst part is I got confusing advice from two different bike shops. Some say your sit bones should be on the widest part of the saddle. Another shop (more racer orientated said you should be sitting in the nose of the saddle right before it widens. Selle SMP and fizik models seem to lean towards this b/c their saddles actually have a bit of a craddle that prevents you from sliding back to the furtherest part of the saddle. Guy from bike shop #1 said, yeah that's great if you are riding TT or triathoons but on long rides it would kill you.

I'm now waiting for LBS#3 to get a SI SLR lady in so I can test it.

Do you like your saddle? How long are your longest rides?

I think the SI SLR Lady is different from the SI Lady (LDY), though I could well be mistaken. I get confused by all of the similar names that Selle Italia seems to have. I had quite the saddle journey before finding this one, starting with Brooks. I love my SI Lady, and the furthest I've ridden on it is 75 miles.

One thing to keep in mind is I've a VERY upright riding position due to arthritis in my hands not allowing me to use road bars. I ride 2-inch riser bars with grips, and I can ride for hours without hand pain or saddle issues. I suspect that my contact with the saddle is quite different than yours as you likely have road bars. I also have this same saddle on my mountain bike.

Good luck on your search!